Ugly Sweaters And Christmas Cookies (Part 1)

Posted on Thu Dec 30th, 2021 @ 6:35am by Petty Officer 1st Class Yoshika Miyafuji & Ensign Lynette Bishop 'Highlander'
Edited on on Thu Dec 30th, 2021 @ 6:37am

1,700 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Christmas Time
Location: USS Tokyo (NCC-91101), Holosuite, Deck 2
Timeline: December 20, 1900 hours

Lynette had to admit, the program Nozomi had picked out for tonight was quite pleasant.

She'd allegedly gotten the codes from a gift exchange back when she was working a desk job out in Sapporo; it was apparently based around one of her colleague's winter chalets at some Ski Resort called "Rusutsu"...? Whatever the case, it served as the perfect backdrop for her Christmas date with Petty Officer Miyafuji. All it needed was a few small tweaks- a string of garland there, some stockings by the fireplace, and a pantry stocked with all the ingredients they would need for a new recipe that she had been hoping to try out with Yoshika- and it was already starting to feel a little more like a place the two of them could call their own.

She sighed. Too bad it wasn't real...

The door-chime sounded, quickly rousing her from her thoughts.

"Coming!" she called out, quickly moving to answer the door.

Once the door opened Yoshika stood there, it was rather cold and she hadn't been expecting it this cold. She was shivering slightly. "Hi" she shivered with a slight smile.

"Oh my Gosh!" Lynette gasped as she quickly ushered Yoshika inside. "I'm so, so sorry about that! I was hoping it wasn't going to be too cold for you!"

"It's fine" Yoshika replied with a sweet smile as she entered. "It was nice to be invited out. I don't often get chance to do this sort of stuff" she blushed.

"U-u-um... r-right," Lynette stammered, blushing a little herself. "So. Did you, um... did you want to get settled in first, or do you mind if we move straight into, uh... you know... baking?"

"Sure. What do you want to make?" Yoshika asked.

"Well, you see..." Lynette began, twiddling her thumbs nervously. "I, um, I figured that... well, I'm hoping this isn't a stereotype or anything, but I was figuring since you were Japanese and all, I'd try out this Matcha Butter Cookie recipe that I found..."

She glanced up into Yoshika's puppy-dog eyes and then quickly averted her gaze, struggling in vain to hide her blush.

"U-um... if you're not opposed to it, that is..."

"We can try. I've never made them. They remind me of my grandmother, she used to make these when I was a kid" Yoshika smiled. She rolled up her sleeves and then put on an apron. "So, where do we start?"

"W-Well, first we'll need to get the ingredients out," Lynette explained as she led Yoshika over to the pantry. "I did my homework in advance and bought the physical ingredients while we were docked at DS7, so you can always take them back to your quarters when we're done here."

Yoshika smiled in response. "That'd be nice, but I'll enjoy them more with you"

Standing up on her tiptoes, Lynette unlatched one of the cupboards, revealing everything they'd need for this recipe.

"Let's see... one 4-pound bag of granulated sugar, one 16-ounce bottle of vanilla extract, one pound of flour, two pounds of Matcha tea powder, one pound of powdered sugar..." she mumbled as she carefully took stock of their dry goods.

"...And in the refrigerator," she continued, gesticulating towards the appliance in question. "We should have two sticks of unsalted butter, a carton of eggs, a quart of milk, and a bar of milk chocolate. We should have have enough for two batches, with one for each of us."

"Lets get to work" Yoshika said as she prepared the counter. "I'm ready for you now..." she called.

After laying out everything they need, the two of them set straight to work;
after giving the butter about an hour or two to soften (Lynette had neglected to put the butter out beforehand, and given that it was real butter, they couldn't exactly speed up the process), they added both sticks to a bowl and mixed them in with about 120 grams of sugar and a pinch of salt, gently stirring the mixture until it was of a nice, creamy texture. After that, they split a couple of eggs over the mixture and mixed them in with a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Yoshika had giggled at the fact she had forgotton to put out the butter to soften. But she didn't mind, it was all part of the fun.

Next, the two of them got out a separate bowl, into which they might've poured the flour just a little too quickly (Lynette's face wound up covered in powder, much to her immediate embarrassment); but after the two of them had a good laugh over the matter, they incorporated approximately 3 teaspoons of Matcha powder before adding it to the butter mixture. a few teaspoons of milk were gradually added in to loosen the mixture.

Once they had determined that the mixture was of a soft enough texture, Yoshika proceeded to feed it into a strong piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle, while Lynette lined a set of baking trays with wax paper and placed a tree-shaped template underneath.

Hoisting the piping bag over one of the trays, Lynette began piping the dough onto the tray, forming the trunk shape first before piping the mixture side-to-side to form the main body of the tree. Given that Lynette had doubled the recipe so that Yoshika had a batch to take back with her, they had enough of the mixture on hand to make about 40 cookies.

Lynette then transferred the trays to the refrigerator, as the cookies would need about 30 minutes to chill before they baked them. Knowing that this would inevitably be the case, Lynette had laid out a series of activities for them to kill some time while they waited.

"I hope they come out good!" Yoshika said as she made her way over towards the other part of the room. The lodge had a nice wood burning fire. She grabbed a log from the side and threw it onto the embers, the flames engulfing it slowly.

She watched as it began to burn. "So..." she said turning to Lyn, blushing slightly. "I wanted to ask... do you... you know... like me?" her voice was a bit shaky and nervous as she rubbed her hands together.

Lynette paused mid-stride, her face pale as the winter wonderland swirling outside as Yoshika's question hit her like Santa's sack.

Of course, she knew it was going to come to this eventually, but it didn't make things any less awkward for her when the time eventually came to face the music. She opened her mouth a few times, but the words just wouldn't come to her.

Yoshika had obviously hit the nail on the head with her question.

"...H-how..." Lynette eventually managed to croak out. "...How did you know?"

"Well... its pretty obvious when you've see a lot of rom com Anime..." Yoshika replied nervously. "Plus... I'm sure that ensign pilot asking questions was another clue. But I'm a bit new to this sort of thing" she told her. "And... I kinda like you too..." Yoshika's cheeks began to blush as she looked down from Lynette as to not see her embarrassment.

Mustering up her courage, Lynette stepped forward, gently taking Yoshika's soft, tiny hands in her own.

"Y-Yoshika," the younger girl began nervously. "F-for the longest of times, I've been living out my life in the closet, too scared to say what I've felt towards some of my female friends. When I first came aboard this ship, I... I thought you were cute, but I didn't figure this was going to go anywhere. And then... and then Nozomi butted her nose in and decided that if I wasn't going to set things in motion, then she would. And next thing I know, she's running back over to tell me that you're gay, and I realized that I might actually have a chance this time..."

She bowed her head, tears starting to form in her eyes. "But at the same time, I'd never gotten this far with a relationship, so I was scared shitless that I was gonna mess this whole thing up. And then... and then we met in the turbolift that one night when we were coming drills, and this little voice in my head's egging me to ask you out, and... I want you to realize I was never as bold in my life as I was that one night, when I asked you out to breakfast. It was the furthest I'd ever gotten with any of my crushes, ever. I was elated when you accepted, and I can't even begin to describe how happy I was when you asked to be my friend. These past few months have been the happiest in my life, because in the first time in my life, I had a goal I was passionate about working towards, hardships and all. And now that that time is upon us..."

Lynette couldn't hold it in much longer; all at once, her waterworks spilled forth as she came to terms with what she was about to say.

"Yoshika Miyafuji, I love you!" She proclaimed. "And I would be the happiest person in the universe to have you go out with me!"

"Lets give it a go" Yoshika said with a smile as she pulled the other girl into an embrace. "I was very much the same, but now I feel more comfortable with you. I never really wanted to admit it, but I can't help it now. You asked me here and my heart was pounding, I just seem to be good at hiding my feelings. I suppose it comes with my job; but here I can be myself" she told her softly into her ear.

"Yoshikaaaaa!" Lynette bawled, burying her face in Yoshika's sleeve and spilled out the feelings she'd been harboring for so long. "I love you; I love you so much..."

To be continued...

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